When tools are used in a manufacturing or service environment, it is important that tools be returned to a storage unit, such as a tool box, after use. Employers typically perform a manual inventory check of the tool box to minimize or eliminate the problem of misplacement or theft of expensive tools. Companies can conduct random audits of employee's toolbox to prevent theft and monitor tool location.
Some industries have high standards for inventory control of tools, for preventing incidents of leaving tools in the workplace environment where they could cause severe damages. For the aerospace industry, it is important to ensure that no tools are accidentally left behind in an aircraft or missile being manufactured, assembled or repaired. The Aerospace Industries Association even establishes a standard called National Aerospace Standard including recommended procedures, personnel management and operations to reduce foreign object damage (FOD) to aerospace products. FOD is defined as any object not structurally part of the aircraft. The most common foreign objects found are nuts, bolts, safety wire, and hand tools. Inventory control over tools is critical to prevent tools from being left in an aircraft.
Some toolboxes try to build in inventory determination features to track inventory conditions of tools stored in those toolboxes. For example, some toolboxes dispose contact sensors, magnetic sensors or infrared sensors in or next to each tool storage locations, to detect whether a tool is placed in each tool storage location. Based on signals generated by the sensors, the toolboxes are able to determine whether any tools are missing. While this type of inventory check may be useful to some extents, it suffers from various drawbacks. For instance, if a sensor detects that something is occupying a storage location, the toolbox will determine that no tool is missing from that storage location. However, the toolbox does not know whether the right kind of tool is indeed placed back in the toolbox or it is just some objects placed in the storage location to cheat the system. Furthermore, disposing sensors for numerous storage locations in a toolbox is tedious and costly, and the large number of sensors is prone to damages or malfunctions which will produce false negative or positive alarms.
Accordingly, there is a need for an effective inventory control system to assist tracking and accounting for usage of tools, and whether they are properly put back after usage. To address these issues, automated tool control systems have been developed which determine an inventory condition of objects by capturing and processing images of storage locations that are used to store the objects. Such an exemplary tool storage system is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/484,127, filed Jun. 12, 2009, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Many industries today have high expectations for efficiency when purchasing electronic systems, including those systems designed to provide tool control and security. Aerospace industries are particularly interested in ensuring the users of those tools are aware of the calibration and inspection status of the tools. When tool status changes, Aerospace industries expect to be able to know and track these changes when they occur. Some toolboxes are capable of tracking user accesses to the tool storage unit, issue and return of tools, and reporting of this data. While these types of inventory check and reporting may be useful to some extent they may not fully take advantage of the capabilities of advancing electronic capabilities in today's automated tool control systems, especially those systems equipped with imaging capabilities. For instance, if a tool storage device contains multiple occurrences of the same tool in a drawer or tray and each of the identical tools is issued to a different user, one of the users returning the tool to the drawer or tray may not know to which storage location to return the issued tool.
As another example, if a tool is determined to be an incorrect tool for the storage location in the drawer, in those systems that do not employ imaging technology, there is no means to backtrack to determine exactly when and by whom the tool was placed there. But, in systems equipped with imaging technology, it is possible to view the audit images of the specific drawer or tray and determine how the incorrect tool event occurred by comparing time stamps and user data. This is a manual method and is time consuming.
Accordingly, an inventory control system is needed that can improve efficiencies and reduce time spent in identifying tool storage locations for issued tools to be returned, tools incorrectly issued to the user, tools due for calibration and inspection, tools out for calibrations and inspection, broken tools, lost tools, and to identify tool storage locations in simple tool searches.
Furthermore, inventory control systems can operate in their own network independent of other network systems or interfaces. However, many customers, especially the large aerospace industrial and government users may want to be able to communicate with the inventory control system. Accordingly, there is a need for an inventory control system that is fully compatible with local and global computer networks, such as Internet, to exchange information with remote computers and databases.